City News

BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL VOTES TO DIRECT STAFF TO CONDUCT FISCAL ANALYSIS OF BAYLANDS DEVELOPMENT SCENARIOS

BRISBANE, CA -- At their January 16, 2018 Council meeting, the Brisbane City Council voted to direct city staff and consultants to undertake a fiscal analysis of potential development scenarios that include varying amounts of housing in the proposed Baylands development project. Specifically, Council directed staff to work with financial consultants to come back with three different ranges of housing vs. development of non-residential areas, looking at scenarios involving a range of 1,000 - 2,200 residential units, 2 - 6 million sq. ft. of non-residential building area, and to determine the financial consequences of the various scenarios.

"This analysis should help the City Council better understand how potential development scenarios of the Baylands, including a residential component, could ensure that the costs to the City of providing services and maintaining public facilities and infrastructure for any project are offset by the revenues to the City generated by the project," noted the staff report issued by John Swiecki, City Development Manager and City Attorney Michael Roush via City Manager Clay Holstine.

"The analysis would consider residential with accompanying non-residential components for the Baylands to address how development could be managed such that the Baylands generates marginally more revenue than costs for the City, and how individual increments of development (including those that proposed for residential use) can be managed to be, at a minimum, revenue-neutral for the City," according to the staff report.

The report concluded that "the analysis should help inform the City Council's decision making process going forward as to what different development scenarios (each with varying ranges of residential and nonresidential development) would mean for the City."

This analysis is expected to be completed and presented to the City Council for consideration at its March 1, 2018 meeting.

Regarding “The crux of the crisis” (Editorial, Dec. 28): The Chronicle’s editorial criticism of the scrutiny that the city of Brisbane is giving to a 2015 Baylands development proposal is mistaken. Building housing is a complex issue for any local government, and significantly more complicated when the proposed housing is to be built on a long-contaminated former industrial site. It’s infinitely more difficult when the developer, Universal Paragon Corp., hasn’t committed to fully cleaning up the site, as is the case with Baylands.

Indeed, UPC has yet to fulfill any steps required to make the Baylands ready for development, such as site contamination cleanup, securing water resources or demonstrating how it will finance this proposed $1 billion development. Overpromising and underdelivering are par for the course with UPC. They’ve had approval for a decade to build housing in San Francisco but have yet to commence construction despite high demand. They’ve owned another parcel in Brisbane for nearly 30 years, committed to building a hotel, but have never built it.

Working through serious issues with a developer isn’t evidence of a “lingering impasse.” It’s validation that Brisbane is doing its job properly, recognizing who it is working with and that whatever development decision is made will irrevocably impact the health and welfare of future residents and neighboring communities. Brisbane is prepared to act but needs to know it has a sound financial partner that will deliver what it promises. We understand the desire of many to alleviate California’s housing crisis. The Baylands looks like an easy solution, but upon inspection, it isn’t.

At their January 4, 2018 Council Meeting, the City Council voted unanimously to introduce Ord. 624, which officially implements the Parkside Precise Plan by establishing overlay zoning for new residential development in the Parkside Plan Area.The Parkside Plan was adopted by Council on October 30, 2017, bringing to a close a two-year process where consultant firm MIG studied the five properties along Park Place and Park Lane designated for housing overlay zones in the City’s 2015-2022 Housing Element, sought community input to define the community’s vision for future residential and commercial redevelopment, took direction from Council, and presented the Parkside Plan to both the Planning Commission and City Council before the Council ultimately adopted the Plan and associated General Plan text and map amendments.The Parkside Plan also sets forth a vision for future redevelopment of the Brisbane Village Shopping Center and adjacent properties. Note: the Parkside Precise Plan has no regulatory impact to existing commercial uses in the properties subject to the overlay zoning designations; the underlying zoning designation, TC-1 Crocker Park Trade Commercial, will continue to control non-residential development of those properties.To read the final adopted Parkside Plan, please visit the project page on the City’s website here: http://www.brisbaneca.org/parkside-plan-documents.

Thank you to the community members who participated during the community engagement period of this project and stayed informed throughout the process!

Think green this holiday season! From last minute gift ideas, to wrapping, parties and recycling, this guide from the San Mateo County Office of Sustainability will help you ensure Mother Earth has a happy holiday too! Brisbane residents, be sure to check out the notes on tree recycling with South San Francisco Scavenger. They will be picking them up on regular service days starting immediately after Christmas; call ahead to schedule an appointment for multi-family and commercial locations. www.smcsustainability.org/seasonal-info/

Thank you to all the residents who took advantage of the 20+ dumpsters that SSF Scavengers placed throughout Central Brisbane during the weekend of November 4-5. A total of 27.43 tons, or about 43 filled dumpsters were collected! This is an important event that the City provides as a service to the community as it greatly reduces the amount of fallen leaves, branches, and other green waste that oftentimes ends up in the City’s storm drains, and can ultimately lead to flooding activity during the rainy season. The annual Winter Clean Up event helps prevent these types of issues from occurring, so please make sure your household participates when it’s offered again!

At the Council Meeting of 12/14/2017, Council Member Conway was selected by his fellow Council Members as Mayor for 2018 and Council Member Davis was selected as Mayor Pro Tem.

Thank you to Lori S. Liu, who stepped down from the Council after serving a full 4-year term. She was recognized by her fellow Council for her work within the City and in the region, as well as by Congresswoman Jackie Speier, Assembly Member Kevin Mullin and Senator Jerry Hill.